LAPSE:2023.36318
Published Article
LAPSE:2023.36318
Data-Driven Synthesis of a Geometallurgical Model for a Copper Deposit
July 7, 2023
Geometallurgy integrates aspects of geology, metallurgy, and mine planning in order to improve decision making in mining schedules. A geometallurgical model is a 3D space that is typically synthesized from early-stage small-scale samples and is composed of several metallurgical units, or domains. This work explores the synthesis of a geometallurgical model for a copper deposit using a purely data-driven unsupervised approach. To this end, a dataset of 1112 drill samples is used, which are clustered using different methods, namely, k-means, hierarchical clustering (AGG), self-organizing maps (SOM), and DBSCAN. Two cluster validity indices (Silhouette and Calinski−Harabasz) are used to select the final model. To validate the potential of the proposed approach, a simulated economic evaluation is conducted. Results demonstrate that k-means exhibits a better performance in terms of modeling and that using the obtained geometallurgical model for mining scheduling increases the project’s Net Present Value (NPV) by as much as 4%. Based on these results, the proposed methodology is an appealing alternative for generating geometallurgical models within greenfield, brownfield and ongoing operations.
Keywords
cluster analysis, copper deposit, geometallurgy, Machine Learning, unsupervised learning
Suggested Citation
Mu Y, Salas JC. Data-Driven Synthesis of a Geometallurgical Model for a Copper Deposit. (2023). LAPSE:2023.36318
Author Affiliations
Mu Y: Department of Mining Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago 7820436, Chile; Zijin (Xiamen) Engineering Co., Ltd., 20th Floor, Block B, Haifu Center, No. 599 Sishui Road, Huli District, Xiamen 361000, Ch [ORCID]
Salas JC: Department of Mining Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago 7820436, Chile [ORCID]
Journal Name
Processes
Volume
11
Issue
6
First Page
1775
Year
2023
Publication Date
2023-06-10
Published Version
ISSN
2227-9717
Version Comments
Original Submission
Other Meta
PII: pr11061775, Publication Type: Journal Article
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LAPSE:2023.36318
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doi:10.3390/pr11061775
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Jul 7, 2023
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CC BY 4.0
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Jul 7, 2023
 
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Original Submitter
Calvin Tsay
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